The Sleeper Must Awaken
by trinfaneb
Summary: SG-1 General Fic-a-Thon for Ueshiba. Willow discovers Jack O’Neill under the ice in Antarctica and learns information that will change the world forever. BtVS-SG1
1. Chapter 1

The Sleeper Must Awaken

Disclaimer: All characters are the intellectual property of their respective creators, film companies, etc.; this story may not be sold or distributed on a profit-making basis. I welcome free distribution of the story, but please let me know if you are going to do it. trinfaneb at yahoo dot com.

Written for the SG-1 General Fic-A-Thon for Ueshiba who wanted "Post-Chosen, the disturbance over Antarctica is noticed (last eps in S7 for SG1) and a team sent to investigate. Jack is discovered and rescued via magical means" and "In-depth character development, not the instantaneous 'I'm a Slayer, you kill aliens?" and NO "PWP or Another Portal!Buffy story; Military!Xander having been in the SGC - too much of this already."

Spoilers: Major spoilers for pretty much all of Buffy and Angel, especially "Chosen" and "Not Fade Away." Spoilers for the basic plot of seasons 1-7 of SG-1 and especially "The Lost City" parts 1 and 2.

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Chapter 1

As it turned out, Willow materialized only a few feet above the ground in the mile deep ice cavern. Under the circumstances, she thought that was a pretty good teleporting spell. She didn't have the time nor the spare mystical energy to make herself levitate, so she just plopped down onto the ice as her hair color changed from white to its normal red. Fortunately she wore stuntman-style body pads and was prepared to roll like a parachutist in order to break her fall.

Taking inventory as she regained her breath after the impact, she realized that nothing seemed to be broken or sprained. She also wasn't freezing to death either. The down outerwear helped with this, but the temperature of the chamber seemed to be not too far below freezing. At this point she wasn't sure if this was due to the insulating properties of ice, geothermal activity, or a by-product of the strange looking machinery in the cavern.

She fished a crystal out of a jacket pocket as she walked around the chamber. She held the crystal out in front of her as she made a circuit of the room so that it had a clear view of everything in the chamber. She stopped under the mile long bore hole through the ice and held the crystal above her head and intoned, "obscure espion." Now she didn't have to worry about any electronic spying devices left behind by the government. If there were any devices present, they would show the chamber with no activity and normal environmental readings. Her teleportation spell had included a five minute long spy blocking sub-spell to cover the period before she cast the main spell.

She looked up the bore hole and saw that it went straight up to the surface without any obstructions. Her own spy probes had shown her that the government had constructed a building over the hole and posted guards around the site and the likely land approaches. But they didn't come down the hole and investigate the machinery. She supposed this had something to do with the non-military aspects of the eleven-nation Antarctica treaty. Her probes showed personnel from many nations cleaning up the debris from some great battle above the surface. She suspected that it was some kind of aerial dogfight. She also suspected that the different countries were negotiating mutual access to the chamber below. Therefore she needed to learn as much as she could before they started coming down the ice.

She knew the cavern and the activity surrounding it had something to do with the government reports of a meteor shower that hit a Pacific carrier group almost a month ago and caused the deaths of 2,000 American service men and women. She and Andrew suspected that this was a cover story for the battle over the underground chamber. He had seen some very interesting rumors on the internet about these and other events. Over the past year since she performed the Slayer activation spell, she had greatly increased her mystical awareness of her surroundings and of Gaea as a whole. She shouldn't be able to sense a conventional battle thousands of miles away, but she did sense the Antarctica battle. She was able to do that because the heaviest concentrations of mystical energy she had ever felt had been used during the battle.

Xander had compared it to Obi-Wan sensing the destruction of Alderan, although she hadn't sensed the snuffing out of any lives. Just the biggest honking display of power she had ever felt. Even if that power felt subtlety different from any other mystical energy she had ever encountered. It eclipsed her Darth Willow and activation spell experiences. She was cognizant enough about her psychological make-up to realize she wouldn't be able to rest until she investigated the source of this power and found it if there was any way for her to use it.

She hadn't put it in those terms to the rest of the gang during their weekly leadership meeting. But they had agreed that this event needed to be investigated and Willow was the logical person to do it. So she had teleported some mystical spy probes over the battle area and down the bore hole. She was busy making refinements to her teleporting spell so she could safely materialize into the chamber when she began to feel mystical rumblings of a battle in Los Angeles. She teleported more spy probes and managed to witness the end of the battle in the alley near the Hyperion.

Within a couple of minutes she saw Gunn, then the creature that had killed Fred, and then Spike be killed by the demon hordes. She was frantically explaining things to Kennedy and preparing a teleport spell when Angel was set upon by a dozen demons and dusted. Angel and his crew had killed at least a hundred of the demons including one dragon, but there were just too many in the end. Over the past year she had tried to pretend she didn't care about Angel, Spike, Wesley, and the others she didn't know as well, but now she broke down and let a couple of tears slip out and swore vengeance upon those who had killed her former comrades-in-arms.

Last fall she had reluctantly gone along with Giles and Xander and agreed not to have any direct contact with Angel and his people. Faith had become bored and irritated with the then teleconference meetings just a few months after the Sunnydale Hellmouth was closed and now ignored them and concentrated on Slayer training and demon killing in Cleveland. The re-materialization of Spike, the conflict over mental patient turned Slayer Dana, and the emergence of Illyria had made it easier to shun Angel and his decision to take over the Wolfram & Hart LA branch. Giles and Xander still didn't trust Spike and feared Illyria and Willow shared the same feelings, if only to a lesser extent. Buffy was in Rome and in love with the Immortal and didn't participate in most Slayer business these days. The group decision had been made not to inform her about Spike's re-emergence. It was reasoned that if Spike really cared about her, he would make an effort to contact her himself.

Well now that would never happen. During the emergency meeting that was called after the Hyperion Battle, all the facts came out and Buffy had some choice words for everyone. She cut her phone connection and wouldn't return any calls. Later they learned from Dawn that Buffy broke up with the Immortal because he had also concealed knowledge of Spike from her. Dawn said that Buffy just wanted to be left alone. The Senior Slayer felt sad and guilty.

Willow shared those emotions. But she also felt the need for vengeance. She, Faith, Andrew, and most of the Slayers vowed to destroy those who had killed Angel, Spike, and Wesley. Giles and Xander had tried to argue against it, but they soon realized they couldn't win and gave their reluctant assistance to the venture.

Leaving only one Slayer and a trainee Watcher in Cleveland, the Slayer army descended upon Los Angeles. In the first week they killed every hostile demon they could find in the city. Then they followed the remnants of the demon army as it fled across several demon dimensions. By three weeks after the Hyperion battle, all the demons that had participated in that conflict were dead. Five Slayers and two Watchers were also killed, but everyone realized a great blow had been delivered against the demon world.

They knew that retaliation would be coming, but the Slayer army would be ready for it. They left a few Slayers in LA and withdrew back to Cleveland to heal and train. Willow meditated several days in order to purge herself of the negative feelings she had experienced during the conflict. She felt she had enjoyed personally killing those hundreds of demons more than she should have. She also felt guilty about abandoning Angel. She knew in her heart that the abandonment had helped push Angel and the others into their suicidal venture. He should have tried to persuade her that he was doing the right thing. She would have believed him and convinced everyone to help him. But he didn't and she had been too busy building up the Slayer army, her relationship with Kennedy, and her mystical powers to seek him out and attempt to put things right. Hopefully she would have a long life in order to deal with her guilty feelings about the events of the past month. As well as the usual problems they faced with finding and training Slayers and fighting demons, now she, Xander, and Giles faced the difficult and perhaps even impossible task of reconciling with Buffy. But that was for the future. Now it was time to investigate the cavern in Antarctica.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Willow put away the crystal and took out her talking stone and waved her hand over it to activate it. "Hey babe, how's it hanging?" she said.

"Oh godess, its about time you called. Are you okay?" Kennedy asked as she spoke into her mated talking stone. "I was worried that you had beamed into the ice or something."

"Now honey, you know that the basic properties of the teleportation spell guard against that kind of accident. The real danger is that I would materialize too high in the air and bust my tucas."

"We wouldn't want that, I kind of like that little tushy-so how do things look in the fortress of solitude?" Kennedy asked. Willow could defiantly tell she had been talking with Andrew and Xander a lot the past year or so.

"Lots of ice, but not extremely cold. I've even starting to feel a little hot. Lots of strange looking machines all around. A big chair in the middle of the chamber. The machinery looks operational, I just need to figure out how to access it."

"Why don't you try the Scotty thing from Star Trek IV?"

"Ok, if you insist," Willow said before she cleared her throat and spoke with her best faint Scottish brogue, "Computer, show me how to access your controls."

"Anything happen?"

"Nope."

"Maybe you need to turn it on or be in a special place to work it."

"Yeah, good idea. I'll try that big chair in the middle."

"Just be careful."

"I will," Willow said as she sat in the chair and repeated, "Computer, show me how to access your controls." To her surprise, the chair folded back to an almost vertical position and a holographic display popped up in the air. It showed strange symbols and writing.

"Anything happening?"

"Yeah it looks like I've brought up some kind of interface. It may be able to read my thoughts in some manner. I'm seeing some form of writing. I can't translate it, but it looks related to one of the demon languages I've researched before. I'll send it to Giles and see what the Watchers can dig up."

"Sounds like a great start," Kennedy said. "Can you teleport me over there now?"

"No, you need to stay there in Tierra del Fuego in case something happens to me and you need to get help from Giles and the Coven. When we're sure things are safe down here, then you can join me." They had decided to set up base camp in Patagonia in order to conserve the energies needed for teleporting down into the ice. Willow could feel her mind becoming more attuned to the chair and the interface. She was certain that she would learn how to make the device give up its secrets.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Two weeks later Willow had pretty good grasp of the contents of the cavern computers. Unfortunately the chamber was only designed as a defense control station and didn't promise to offer up much detailed information about the race some referred to as the Ancients. Giles had spent a couple of days investigating the chamber and teaching Willow what little existed of a proto-demon language that matched the symbols found on the chair interface. Once Willow began visualizing that language while she was in the chair, the interface started teaching her a related language. It was slow at first, but picked up speed as she learned more and by the end of the first week she had enough to master it.

During that time, she also grew accustomed to the feel of the machinery's power source. It was mechanical in construction, but resonated with mystical energy. She searched for other sources of the same energy and sensed periodic surges from a military installation in Colorado. She sent spy probes in and learned that the underground base held a device that opened wormholes and allowed people to travel to other planets that also had a device. They called it the Stargate.

She also sensed a stealthy but powerful power source deep within the Cleveland Hellmouth. It was protected by formidable spells and she would need some prep time and the assistance of the Coven to penetrate them. And it was likely that the source was protected by some kind of demon army the Slayers would need to defeat. She decided to leave that be until after she dealt with the frozen man in the Antarctica chamber.

Kennedy was the first one to discover the man. She bumped against a machine and wiped the frost off it and saw a man in some kind of state of suspended animation. He was in what the Stargate people called a "regeneration chamber." She learned that his name was Jack O'Neill and less than two months ago he had volunteered to have knowledge from a library constructed by the Ancients downloaded into his brain. This had ultimately left him incapable of speaking anything except the Ancient language (which the Stargate people only knew a small bit of at that time), but still he managed to locate a power source constructed by the Ancients (called a "ZPM" by the military) and used it to power the defense center within the cavern to defeat an alien space armada.

But his brain couldn't handle the knowledge of the Ancients for long. So he had placed himself in the regeneration chamber until a method to safely remove the knowledge could be found. Kennedy listened to conversations from the Stargate base and discovered that O'Neill had had an Ancient library downloaded into his brain once before. That time he had contacted an alien race called the Asgard and they had been able to remove the knowledge. But the humans hadn't heard from the Asgard in quite some time. They feared that the alien's war against something called the replicators was going badly.

The more Willow learned about O'Neill, the more she admired him. From the information she could gather, he had saved the world at least as many times as Buffy had. His colleagues, his friends were very frustrated that they could not investigate the chamber yet. They hoped they would find some way to restore O'Neill to his old self.

But Willow knew they wouldn't find a solution that would help them in the chamber. Short of contacting the Asgard, there was nothing they could do to help their friend. But there was something she could do. The cavern computers gave her enough background on the Ancient libraries to feel she might be able to remove the knowledge using magic. After re-awakening O'Neill, she should be able to use one spell to make him forget anything that happened up to a point just before he used the Ancient library and another spell to permanently extract the recently forgotten knowledge from his brain. There would be no danger of a relapse caused by a broken crystal or anything else.

After explaining the problem to Giles and suggesting that they try using some variation of the forgetting spell, the Watcher had done some research and found a spell to extract forgotten knowledge from a human's brain. That had been an awkward conversation for both of them because of the memory spells Willow had used on Tara and everyone else. Because of the nature and sheer amount of Ancient memory O'Neill had, Willow would not have been able to perform the extraction spell before she became Darth Willow and then the White godess. It would still be difficult now, but she felt it was doable. However she would need to establish a rapid telepathic communication with O'Neill after he was re-awoken in order to explain her purpose and perform the spell before his brain was permanently damaged by the Ancient knowledge.

Giles, Xander and the rest agreed that she should help O'Neill if she could, but they were uneasy with the rest of her ideas. The more Willow learned about the Ancients and their history and technology, the more she was certain that demons had used some of that technology in the past. She examined the mystical power that flowed through her own being and found traces of the Ancient power sources. Since her energy had been contaminated by the energy from the Sunnydale Hellmouth, it stood to reason that an ancient power source had been located somewhere within the Hellmouth. It was her theory that both the Sunnydale and Cleveland Hellmouths had been opened using ZPMs. And Spike's amulet must have done something to the Sunnydale Hellmouth power source in order to make it close. Giles was forced to admit that her theory sounded more plausible than any other theories on the subject.

But he didn't like the conclusions Willow drew from her theories. She now knew in her bones that the best way to fight demons would be to understand the power of the Ancients. She remotely scanned the alien in the Stargate complex called Teal'C and found a residue from a demon infestation in his body. She teleported into the morgue of a navy ship off the coast of Antarctica and examined the remains of some of the air crew of the alien craft shot down in the dogfight. They were humanoid, but infected by infant demonic parasites. What the military called "Gou'ald," she called demons. Ultimately they were fighting the same thing.

So it made sense to Willow that they join forces with the military in order to share knowledge and construct new weapons. She knew that military assistance would greatly reduce the number of casualties the Slayers would suffer in the effort to retrieve the Cleveland ZPM and hopefully close the Hellmouth. And her magic and the strength of the Slayers would be an asset against the scary new alien warriors the Stargate people faced. The knowledge that Willow herself held a very high concentration of the Ancient's gene in her cells would certainly be enough to get them interested. But everyone else was concerned that they would end up locked away in Area 51 or where ever Ethan Rayne was being held. Because of their experiences with The Initiative, they didn't trust the government.

But Willow saw the auras and Kennedy listened to the conversations of the people in the Stargate complex and those working in Antarctica. The two women were convinced these were good people with good leadership and good intentions. They had the direct support of the President and most of the other leaders of the industrialized countries of the world. On the other hand, she wasn't even sure the President had known about the Initiative.

Willow and Kennedy were going to teleport to a Scooby leadership meeting in a few hours where the group would decide which course to follow. The options they had were to cover their tracks and leave O'Neill as he was, rescue him and hope they didn't get found out, or rescue him and negotiate some kind of partnership with the SGC. She knew that the military had formed alliances with the Asgard and other offworld communities. She felt they would do the same with the Slayers if they could demonstrate that they had something substantial to offer towards the defense of Earth. She felt that teleporting into the SGC with a healed and cooperative Jack O'Neill and then demonstrating her knowledge of the Ancient command center would be a big step in the right direction. One of the things she would show them was the existence of Atlantis-the lost city they had been searching for. Demons and other mystics had probably already exploited most of the Ancient artifacts left on Earth, but she suspected that the knowledge and power she needed to rid the world of demons was in the Pegasus Galaxy. And joining forces with the military was the best way to be able to go through the Stargate and get there.

She suspected that everyone else at the meeting would see the logic of her arguments. But if that didn't work, she was prepared to use guilt. Angel and the rest had ultimately died because they were alone and abandoned by the Scoobies. If the two groups had joined forces that wouldn't have had to happen. In the end they might still all be killed fighting evil, but they had a greater chance of succeeding and surviving if they got assistance from others fighting the same fight.

Willow did a mental relaxation exercise and then got up from the chair in the middle of the cavern. Many thoughts weighed heavy on her mind. She still felt much guilt and sadness for things she had done or not been able to prevent, but also felt hope for a brighter future. Things would work out with O'Neill and the military. She would reconcile with Buffy. And she would always have Kennedy and the memory of Oz and Tara. Willow had time to give her girlfriend a small demonstration of her love before they left for the meeting. It was still chilly in the chamber, but she knew they could heat it up a little. Things were definitely going to be even more interesting for the Scoobies from now on.

The End (for now?)


End file.
